Hugo Takes us on a Trip Down the Sewers and Javert has a Change of Heart

So, Valjean has ‘captured’ Marius, but Book 2 opens with Hugo’s familiar book-opening essay, this time on the exciting subject of sewers and sewerage. It’s not hard to guess where Valjean and Marius have gone. The sewers are associated with ‘the tomb’ and Marius is seriously injured. Either there is going to be a death or another re-birth. Hugo talks of the tomb of Marat, linking the story to the first revolution. Valjean is blinded by the dark, deaf and thinks he is in a different sewer so ends up lost. On his way, his is almost caught by the police who are pursuing a man. He steps on some soft, sinky stuff that gives way and almost drowns, but manages to rescue himself and Marius. He is almost about to leave the sewers in a break for freedom when he is stopped by a metal grille. He believes everything is lost and thinks only of Cossette.

Fortunately, before he can despair, our old friend Thenardier turns up, having been the many whom the police were chasing. Being in the dark he doesn’t recognise his old nemesis and being the rouge he is he assumes that Valjean is attempting to dispose of the body of a man he has robbed and murdered. He offers to’ go halves’, that is, he will unlock the grille with the handy key in his possession if Valjean will share half the booty. Thenard is not exactly in his element here. Hugo describes him as not seeming ‘quite at his ease’ (p1093) and Valjean is suspicious that he fears he’ll have to share with some other criminals. Anyway, he steals both all the money that is in Marius’s pockets and part of Marius’s coat (as evidence so he can later identify the body), but does uphold his side of the bargain by unlocking the grille and allowing Val to escape.

Into the path of Javert, who was waiting to capture Thenard. Val does not try to hide who he is, just gives himself up immediately but asks Jav to help him to take Marius home to his grandfather. They take him home and Val asks for one last favour, to be able to go home to see Cos. Hugo emphasises that his encounter with the bishop has caused him to abhor violence to the extent that he has no thought of committing suicide and is quite prepared to go back to prison. However, Javert disappears once Valjean has arrived home.

Meanwhile, Marius is lucky to be barely alive, having been saved from certain death by the combination of his own wallet and a man who hates him. Gillenormand (who I assume was previously rendered insensible rather than stunned into sudden death) is both distressed and outraged that he should die, believing that Marius has done it all for the sake of hating him when he has been ready and waiting to welcome him home. Thankfully, Marius wakes pretty shortly after Gillenormand has made plans to die as soon as possible.

The re-birth of Book 3 is mainly related to Marius I think. All that mooning over Cos was replaced by his taking change of the action at the barricade and he has ‘earned’ the love and respect of his grandfather and Cossette. He is re-born as a man who can take an active rather than passive role. Valjean is not significantly changed by his experience in the sewer, but this does seem to mark a kind of ‘waning’ of his story.

The other re-birth here is that of Javert, who has acted peculiarly since escaping from the barricade, and Hugo turns our attention to his fate in Book 4. It is a short, yet moving book.

It opens with a lovely description of how his posture has changed from having his arms folded in a posture of ‘expressive determination’ (p1104) to one where he walks with his hands folded behind his back and his head bowed, a thoughtful yet penitent pose. So far Hugo hasn’t really described how he feels towards what has happened, but here he describes how he felt when he saw Valjean: ‘When he had so unexpectedly encountered Jean Valjean on the edge of the river his feelings had been partly those of a wolf catching its prey and partly those of a dog finding its master.’ (p1104). Valjean has pretty mach always confused him as he doesn’t behave in a way that Javert expects and his mind can’t handle that there is more than one path in life. He knows that although Valjean is a criminal, he is also the greater man: ‘Something dreadful was forcing its way into Javert’s consciousness – admiration for a convicted felon.’ (p1106).  Javert responds to the mercy that Valjean has given by giving mercy in return. The old certainty he felt has gone and it has profoundly changed his personality. As Hugo says, he has failed to be above reproach. In the process, he has opened up his heart to God and realised that society and lawgivers are not perfect and infallible.

He returns to the police-post, leaving some tips that he believes will improve the police service (also to show a little mercy and prevent some of the corruption going on in the prison). He is a methodical as always. Then he goes down to the river, takes off his hat and drowns himself.

Javert, I salute you. You were a fine character, but alas, there wasn’t really anywhere else you could’ve gone other than to the big police station in the sky. You could’ve hardly had some sort of happy ending with a lovely Mrs. Javert somewhere or gone on catching only the bad criminals whilst letting Valjean off, particularly with the short length of the book left. No, you were punished for your previous inflexibility and lack of mercy (although I wish you could’ve somehow subsequently arrested Thenard, maybe there is room here for a ‘Javert haunts Thenardier’ kind of a sequel).  You were a formidable police chief who rose from humble beginnings as the son of criminals, and whilst condemning you for being a bit of a git, we did sleep better in our beds knowing you were out there catching criminals.

Next up, the end of the book, the tying up of the many loose ends left and some sticky sickly stuff.